


Take This Fowl Offering, O Satan

by ElenaCee



Series: Devil's Trap [22]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel Wings, Angels, Battle Wings, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV) Whump, Magical Realism, Occult, Original Character(s), Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-07-10 23:53:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15960239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElenaCee/pseuds/ElenaCee
Summary: The Satanists in LA continue to make a nuisance of themselves.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please note the changed Archive Warning for Graphic Depictions of Violence.
> 
> As always, thanks to all of you for your kudos and comments on the preceding parts, and of course for reading this one! I hope you still like where I'm taking this story.
> 
> I'm sorry for being so terrible at responding to comments; believe me when I say that I cherish each and every one. <3

 

It was Friday night (or possibly Saturday night; Lucifer hadn’t been paying attention to the time for a while now), and the party at Lux was going just the way he liked it - loud and uninhibited, humans having fun, indulging in their desires, with the Devil being the unofficial center of adulation, as was only right and just. He didn’t need to engage his charm power to know that at least half the patrons in the room would give it to him here and now if he gave them the slightest hint that their advances were welcome.

He didn’t. Fealty still was a new concept for him, but he found, to his surprise, that he enjoyed the constraints it posed. He wasn’t unaffected by the raw sensuality in the air by any means, and millennia of instant gratification had conditioned his body sufficiently to keep the resulting, insistent sensation just this side of pleasant, but he could wait. For Chloe’s sake, he would wait. The release, when it came, would be all the sweeter.

All those delightful new things his love was teaching him, and she wasn’t even here!

Then his eyes fell on something that dispelled his low-grade arousal like a bucket of ice water.

_ Bloody hell. Them again. _

Five of them, in fact, seated around a table in a corner far away from the center stage, dressed in black (naturally), piercings in their faces, occult symbols glinting in the moving lights. They were staring at him intently. The objects aligned on the table before them definitely weren’t drinks or phones, and their lips were moving in synch.

Lucifer sighed, waving one of his security guards over.

“Clint,” he said when the young man had reached him, “be a darling and go outside and have another word with the boys, would you? These bloody Satanists somehow keep invading my club and killing my buzz.”

“Thought we’d taken care of it, boss,” Clint nodded. “Sorry. On it.” He turned to leave.

“Right,” Lucifer said, watching the guard weave his way through the crowd, “and as for you party crashers….” He homed in on the group of Satanists, walking towards them as the crowd parted for him like the Red Sea.

The black-dressed humans looked up at him with a mixture of fear and rapture in their artificially pale faces that put Lucifer in an even worse mood. “Hello,” he purred, sitting down next to one of them and briefly giving each of them the Eye, “I see you brought your own drinks.” He nodded at the ceremonial vessel in the middle of the table that probably contained the blood of some innocent animal. “Big no-no in a nightclub, you know.”

“M-my Lord,” one of them began, but Lucifer cut him off.

_ “I am not your Lord!” _ he hissed. “I am, however, the Devil, and right now I am also sexually frustrated, and you mummers have circumvented my security to, what, use my home for one of your little rituals without my permission, and you’re not paying for your drinks, all of which  _ pisses me off.” _

They gaped at him like he had kicked a puppy.

He was unimpressed. “You have ten seconds to remove yourselves and all your paraphernalia from these premises, and if I ever see even one of your ilk again in here, I’ll visit  _ every single one of you _ in your homes and turn your lives into a sphincter-loosening nightmare!”

Two of them hastily started grabbing their things, while the one who had first addressed him said, “But, my Lord Lucifer -”

_ “Do you want me to devour your soul?” _

The young man - barely of legal drinking age if Lucifer was any judge - turned even paler than his white makeup had made him appear, but he held Lucifer’s gaze. “I’d be honored, Lord,” he managed.

Lucifer rolled his eyes at himself. One of those, then. He should have known. Flashing that boy the Devil face probably would accomplish nothing except trigger a bout of religious ecstasy.

He let his rage flare up in his eyes instead. “Ten.”

The boy gulped but remained seated. The two that had shown a lick of sense were already making for the exit. The remaining two, both girls, were in the process of gathering their items, throwing their compatriot worried glances.

**“Nine,”** Lucifer said, adding sub-harmonics to his voice.

“C’mon, Ted,” one of the item-gatherers implored the stubborn one.

The scene was beginning to draw attention and thus ruin the mood for Lucifer’s patrons, which was even more unacceptable than ruining his mood.

He growled. “Eightsevensixfivefourthreetwoone,” he rattled off, then smiled his not-nice smile. “Time’s up.”

The glow of several phone displays alerted him to the fact that whatever he did next would be up on Youtube within minutes. He found that he didn’t care. Public examples needed publicity, after all. He stood back from the table, preparing to --

“Lucifer?”

_ Chloe. _ He froze, torn between two conflicting impulses.

“What’s going on?” she added, coming up behind him.

“Oh,” he said casually, “just preparing to smite an undesirable.” He didn’t look away from Ted. “And possibly detach his limbs one by one before I eviscerate him.”

“Lucifer,” she said in that long-suffering yet affectionate tone he found so adorable. He could practically hear the unspoken ‘behave!’ in her voice.

“Oh, very well,” he gave in, leaving his wings hidden and Ted sadly un-terrified. “You’ve been evicted from this building, worm,” he addressed the satanist. “Are you going peacefully, or do I have to live up to my name and…” he paused dramatically, “... involve the police?”

There was a collective sound of disappointment from the onlookers that Lucifer shared, but the smile Chloe gave him more than made up for it.

 

* * *

 

“What would you really have done to him if I hadn’t turned up?” Chloe later wanted to know.

She was trying to ignore the new weight on her ring finger even though she couldn’t help playing with it. By now, she knew what it looked like; she’d admired the tricolor metal band with its inlaid ruby often enough. Of course, Lucifer hadn’t bought this engagement ring in any store; he’d just disappeared for a while and come back with it, still warm from being created and Lucifer smelling faintly of brimstone and brushing ash off his jacket. The band was made of three intertwined metals; bright yellow Earthly gold, dark grey Hell steel, and a iridescent white Heavenly metal that was only known by its Celestial name, while the hellfire-red ruby apparently had been formed out of space matter and by Lucifer’s will. She hadn’t needed to have the symbolism explained to her.

Lucifer, artfully outlined against the background light filtering through his black, sheer blinds, turned to face her as he unbuttoned his shirt. “Oh, I wouldn’t have killed him,” he said, “if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I’m not,” she said, meaning it. Despite his colorful threats, she knew that he was no killer, even though he was the Devil, or maybe because he was. “I’m just curious.” She kicked off her shoes, eyeing the metal contraption in one corner of Lucifer’s bedroom, wondering whether now would be a good time to bring it into play. She was certainly in the mood for it. The menace the Devil had exuded just before she stepped in must have turned her on more than she had realized.

_ Hello, my name is Chloe Decker, and I have a Devil kink. _

“Want me to show you?” he purred, clearly on the same page.

She nodded wordlessly.

He closed his eyes and went still, concentrating.

After a long moment of nothing happening, Chloe said tentatively, “That’s not very much of anything.”

He kept his eyes closed. “Give me a minute, my love. I’m trying to summon the rage I felt for that insect, but my feelings for you keep getting in the way.”

“Oh.” She smiled, remembering their previous run-in with Satanists. “I could sacrifice a chicken to you, if that’ll help.”

He chortled.

She waved her hands about dramatically. “Take this fowl offering, o Satan, in place of my eternal --”

She broke off as he started to giggle.  _ “Not _ helping,” he forced out.

“Sorry.”

He visibly forced himself to grow serious, then opened his eyes to look at her, and promptly dissolved in another fit of giggles.

She smiled, feeling accomplished. Making Lucifer laugh like that, happily and uninhibited, was one of her missions in life.

“Well, anyway,” he finally said, voice still not quite steady, “I was thinking something like this.” With a woosh, his wings were out, and he pulled one of them forward to rest the outer pinion against her throat while his unbuttoned shirt slid off him, leaving him bare-chested, his lithe musculature outlined in the soft backlighting.

The pinion’s edge remained soft, but Chloe still felt the air suddenly leave her chest and heat bloom all over her body. Her head fell back a bit without her volition, exposing her neck.

They held that tableau, staring at one another over the white of Lucifer’s wing, until Chloe said, breathlessly, “Seriously? I think he would have jumped you. This is  _ so _ hot. Add the eyes, and I can’t guarantee for anything.”

Lucifer grinned. “Really?” His eyes promptly flashed red.

Chloe was only human. “Hnngh,” she managed, and jumped him.

 

* * *

 

“So,” Michael was saying in the slow, ponderous tone of one trying to grasp the intricacies of higher mathematics, “you put a ring on each other’s fingers and repeat what a human has told you to say?”

It truly was a sight for sore eyes, Chloe reflected. Angels had taken over Lucifer’s penthouse, none of them bothering to hide their wings as they were perching on the settee and lounging on the floor with bowls of snacks and bottles of various liquids liberally distributed amongst them. At times like these, she regretted not being able to draw, but fortunately, the marvel of modern technology in the shape of her phone still allowed her to capture this scene for posterity, or at least for Trixie.

“It’s a vow, Mike,” Lucifer said, gesturing with his shot glass. “The ring is a symbol. Really, it’s not that complicated.”

“It’s completely nonsensical.” Michael shook his head, then reached for the bottle in front of him as if more beer would make the concept easier to comprehend. His preference for beer was another thing where Michael differed from his twin Lucifer.

“It’s one of many ways humans go about it,” Amenadiel added. He was leaning back on Lucifer’s settee, cocktail glass in one hand, his wings hanging over the backrest. “Like jumping over a fire together holding hands. Or the groom slaying a dragon.”

“Poor things almost became extinct because of that one,” Lucifer added.

Chloe, seated over at the bar to give the angels some privacy even though they didn’t need it and hadn’t asked for it, shook her head. Sometimes, she still couldn’t tell if some of the things they came up with were true or not.

“Usually,” Amenadiel resumed, “the groom has to buy the bride off her family in some way. I think it’s called ‘dowry’. Or possibly ‘ransom’.”

“Oh,” Lucifer said, smiling widely, “that wouldn’t be a problem. I’ve got any amount of cash.” He winked at Chloe, who shook her head at him in affectionate exasperation.

Michael gave his twin a look. “Well, duh. We all know that you can just create precious metals and precious stones out of whatever’s at hand.”

Chloe looked down at the ring on her finger, smiling softly.  _ And be quite artistic while doing it, too, _ she added silently.

“Smartass,” Lucifer muttered before turning to Amenadiel. “How come you know so much about wedding ceremonies, anyway?”

The black angel gave his brother a serene smile. “I love weddings, that’s all. They’re so beautiful. I sneak in to watch whenever I notice one going on.”

Lucifer looked at him, shaking his head. “My brother, the fierce warrior, a not-so-closeted romantic. Anything surprising  _ you _ want to share with the class, maybe, Mike?”

Michael shrugged, spreading his wings briefly to settle them. “I doubt anything I’ve done will surprise anyone more than my little rebel brother deciding to bind himself to a human woman while in full possession of his faculties, though that part may be up for debate.”

“Oh, ha ha.”

Chloe hid her smile. Apparently, sibling squabbling was the same both on the earthly plane and on the heavenly one.

“If you can’t decide what to do, you could do without the ceremony altogether,” Sachiel put in. “Just go to a registrar’s office and basically tell them you’re married now.”

There was a pause. No one could fail to notice the sadness in Sachiel’s voice or the dejected posture of his wings, not even four angels trying hard to get drunk.

Raphael put a gentle hand on one of his wings. “It’ll pass, Sach,” she said softly.

Meanwhile, Chloe once again had second thoughts. This whole conversation was telling her how alien these human customs were to the angels, who didn’t marry, didn’t build families, and who up until recently had only existed to do their Father’s bidding. With one notable exception.

Said exception was in the process of re-filling his tumbler. “I should put up a sign next to the elevator: ‘No moping allowed past this point’.”

Sachiel, who might be termed another exception, grimaced. “Sorry. It’s not that easy, you know.”

Lucifer’s dark gaze briefly alighted on Chloe. “I’m beginning to gather that.”

_ “Anyway,” _ Michael said pointedly, “when you’ve decided how to do it, what exactly will our roles be in this play?”

“I have no idea, Brother,” Lucifer sighed. “Just be there, listen, clap in the right places, keep your mouths shut in others, and most importantly, go wild at the party afterwards.”

“Huh.” The blond curled angel didn’t look convinced, but nodded. “I guess we can do that.”

Lucifer side-eyed him. “You’re having that ‘this looks like a colossal waste of time’ look on your face.”

At that, Raphael peered at Lucifer’s twin, then framed Michael’s face with her hands and mantled her wings around him. “It is Luci’s right to bind himself to his love in whatever way he chooses, Mike,” she said gently. “If he wishes to do it the human way and for his family to be there to witness it, then you are well-advised to honor that.”

“I said we can do it, and I was including myself in that,” Michael said, sounding surprisingly meek despite just having been reprimanded by his sister. “Unlike our first-born brother, I’ve never been to a wedding before. I’m curious.”

“Will Father be there?” Sachiel wanted to know.

“He’s officiating,” Lucifer said.

That made the feathers of every other angel present puff up briefly in surprise.

Sachiel pouted. “He didn’t even come to my wedding, and He’s officiating at yours.”

“He also didn’t smite you when you fathered either of your spawns,” Lucifer pointed out.

“True.”

Amenadiel waved his cocktail about. “You realize that Father officiating means that whatever plans you and Chloe make will be for naught, right? He’ll just do and say whatever He pleases.”

They took a moment to let that sink in, and from their expressions and slow nodding, none of them could really dispute it.

And Chloe, sipping her red wine, reflected that God and her Mom would get along like a house on fire.


	2. Chapter 2

“So,” Lucifer said, a world of skepticism in his voice, “this is traditional, yes?”

They were walking along one of LA’s boulevards, one that had a number of shops that catered to diverse interests, dodging tourists and people staring at their phones. Trixie, holding one of Chloe’s hands, was looking right and left, focused on finding ‘her’ shop, while Chloe bit back a smile at Lucifer’s words.

“Sort of,” she said. “Family shopping trips used to be more traditional before the Internet, but yeah.” She fell silent briefly as she became distracted by Lucifer trying to shake Trixie’s hand. “And  _ that’s _ traditional, too, you know.”

The Actual Devil glared at his hand, then at Trixie, but he finally allowed the child to hold onto his long fingers. “Fine.” He probably was going for magnanimous, but what he ended up sounding like was affectionately grumpy.

Chloe would never cease to find this ongoing thing between him and her daughter funny. “You won’t get child cooties, I promise,” she couldn’t resist adding, making Trixie giggle.

“How would you know?” Lucifer shot back. “I’m vulnerable in your treasured presence, possibly even susceptible to human diseases, and Dad alone can say where your offspring’s hand has been. Plus, it’s sticky.”

“My hand isn’t sticky,” Trixie protested, now holding hands with both of them and looking like the proverbial cat that got the canary. “Besides, I’m not scared of anything I could catch from  _ you.  _ There could be Hell bugs. Demon fever. Firelake germs. Angel feather mites.”

Lucifer gasped, scandalized. “I do  _ not _ have mites.”

“I can corroborate that, Trix,” Chloe said, who knew exactly where  _ her _ hand had been only this morning. She’d know if those gorgeous white feathers were infested with anything.

Trixie winked at her, grinning, before looking back up at Lucifer. “Are you saying that angel feather mites are actually a thing?”

Before Lucifer could respond, a male voice shrieked, “He’s the Devil!”

Peering in the direction the voice had come from, Chloe saw a man in a street preacher getup, pointing angrily at them.

“Bloody hell,” Lucifer groaned, “not that again.”

“Let’s keep going,” Chloe said under her breath, tightening her hand around Trixie’s and quickening her steps.

“That won’t work,” Lucifer stated, even as he kept pace on the other end of Trixie. “Believe me. I’ve been through this sort of thing before.”

He turned out to be right, because, true to the adage that stupidity loves company, another preacher approached from ahead.

“Devil!” he shouted. “Begone! We don’t want you here!”

Looking up at Lucifer, Chloe recognized his ‘what’s not to like?’ expression, and she knew, just  _ knew, _ that the Devil in question would be making a spectacle shortly, possibly polling the passers-by about who did or did not want him here and why, which could only end in an escalation, and there was Trixie to think about.

“Right,” she said, grabbing her badge with her free hand and holding it in the preachers’ faces one by one, “there is no law that prevents Mr. Morningstar from being here, so if you don’t drop it right now, I’ll be arresting you for criminal harassment.”

“No law?!” one of the two, a little younger and a little fatter than the other, repeated incredulously. “Of course there’s no law! The Devil isn’t bound by human laws! He can do, and does, whatever he likes! He’s the  _ Devil!” _

A crowd was gathering as crowds are wont to, probably hoping for something to post on social media. Still holding on to Trixie’s hand, Chloe again directed a gaze at Lucifer, wondering whether he’d take action and would need to be reined in, but his delighted grin told her that he was perfectly content to watch things unfold.

_ Right. _ “He’s got all his paperwork, and he pays his taxes,” she volleyed at the preacher, “so of course he’s abiding the law, which can’t be said for you. Right now, you’re the one breaking the law by harassing a citizen, so knock it off.”

“He’s the Lord of Hell!” the other preacher fairly shrieked. “Evil personified! He can’t be allowed to walk the earth freely! He must be driven out!”

“Right, that’s it,” Chloe said, producing her handcuffs. “I’m arresting the two of you for slander and harassment, and if I were you, I’d do my best not to add anything to that.”

 

* * *

 

Half an hour later, they were seated at a table in a high-class diner slurping various drinks, and Lucifer still hadn’t stopped grinning.

Chloe, though, was still fuming. “I can’t believe these guys,” she said for what felt like the tenth time. “So disrespectful.” If it weren’t for Trixie’s presence, the words she’d choose would have had a bit more bite to them. “And why’re you so smug about all that, anyway?” she asked the grinning Devil.

His smile grew softer. “I told you, my love, this has happened before. Only this time, I’ve actually had someone defend me, and so admirably, too. Why wouldn’t I be pleased about that?”

She looked at him and closed her mouth.  _ Oh. _

Here she was, angry on his behalf because he had been treated like a criminal, while he seemed not to care about that at all. He was just happy to have had someone take his side for once; someone who wasn’t obligated to do it. She’d call her action human decency, but even this much clearly was a rare commodity for the former Lord of Hell.

“I would have kicked them in the nuts,” Trixie announced, oblivious to the undercurrents, her upper lip sporting a chocolate milk beard.

“Good for you,” Lucifer said, even as Chloe drew in air to remind her daughter about the proper way to go about solving a conflict, and how violence never was the answer.

Trixie nodded earnestly. “When I am Ambassador for Divine Affairs, I’ll make sure that this sort of thing is punished appropriately,” she went on. “But for now, I’d’ve kicked them in the bull-ox.”

“Bollocks,” Lucifer corrected crisply, making Chloe roll her eyes. “And what happened to you being an Angel Rider when you grow up?”

“That was, like, ages ago, Lucifer. I’ve reconsidered my life choices.”

“Clearly,” Lucifer said, amused.

Chloe didn’t share his amusement; she was busy being impressed, once again, by how easily and thoroughly her daughter had adjusted her world view in the wake of all these earth-shattering revelations. And indeed, who could say what the future might hold? Angels and the Devil were walking the earth freely. God Himself had already put in a couple of appearances. No doubt humanity with its incessant need to regularize and administrate things would sooner or later come up with some sort of body to keep the Celestials in check - never mind the fact that this was blatantly impossible -, and representation of interests for both humans and Celestials would soon follow.

Well. Unless there was a witch hunt instead, which, if Chloe read the signs right, was more probable right now than the peaceful civil solution Trixie was envisioning.

 

* * *

 

“What happened to you?” Chloe burst out, horrified.

Maze shrugged as she was lounging back on her seat in their shared kitchen, putting down the vodka bottle and wiping her mouth. Her hair and clothing were in disarray, her face was blackened by what looked like soot, and there was a healing cut across the back of one of her hands. “Some idiots summoned me,” she growled. “Didn’t make the circle right, though, so I could get out, and then I showed them the error of their ways.”

_ “What?” _

“Took me a while to get back here, too.” The demon shrugged again. “Impressive that they managed to get the ritual right, at least.”

Chloe gaped some more. “I - I didn’t know that was possible,” she finally came out with.

“Hasn’t happened in a long time,” Maze drawled. “I thought demon summoning wasn’t taught on Earth anymore. Someone must have found a lost tome, or something.”

Chloe still had trouble processing this. The concept that someone who merely knew the right words and gestures could simply command another being to appear somewhere else was abhorrent to her. It constituted abduction, plain and simple. “You mean this could this happen again?”

Maze bared her teeth. “Trust me, these guys will think twice before they try anything like that again.”

“I sure hope so,” Chloe said, trying not to sound too skeptical. “Uh, what would have happened if they’d gotten the circle right?”

Maze hissed. “Perish the thought,” she growled. “That stuff’s complicated.”

“Like the circle those Dominicans used on Lucifer a while ago?”

“Yeah,” Maze said, nodding slowly. “Shit. The knowledge is out there, isn’t it. Only a matter of time before they can summon me and actually command me. Or any of the other demons.”

Chloe reached out and grabbed Maze’s hand as if trying to physically keep her here. “We’ll find a way to stop this,” she promised her. “Somehow. I won’t let anyone force their will on you like that.”

At that, Maze gave a dark chuckle. “Calm down, Decker. Getting summoned isn’t so bad. ‘Sides, I’m used to it. Used to happen all the time until a few centuries ago.”

Lucifer had basically said the same thing back when the Dominicans had attempted to exorcise him. Chloe hadn’t agreed that repeating an offense eventually made it okay then, and she didn’t agree with it now. “As a citizen of Earth, you’ve got human rights. This sounds to me like a violation of --”

Maze guffawed. “Human rights? I’m a demon! I don’t even have a soul!”

“That doesn’t make you in any way inferior to humans, okay?”

“Didn’t say it did,” Maze growled. “I’m different, that’s all. Humans summon me once, I get to torture their souls in Hell for eternity.” She grimaced. “Or at least, that’s how it used to be. Everything’s changing now.”

That was true. Things were changing, and so rapidly and so profoundly that it was hard to keep up, even for Chloe, who was right at the epicenter.

Replaying Maze’s words, Chloe got the impression that the demon had actually sounded like she was scared. She couldn’t blame her. Change was scary, and what was happening now was positively apocalyptic.

_ Okay, poor choice of words. _

“It’ll be okay,” she said, despite her own misgivings. “God won’t let anything real bad happen to His creation.”

Maze made a face. “He sent the flood, remember? Besides, you may be right about the humans, but why would He care about us demons? He didn’t even care enough about His own son to tone it down with the punishment.”

Chloe smiled. “Yeah, well, that too is changing.”

Maze snorted. “Yeah, right.”

Chloe realized then that this failed summoning meant that Maze had missed the latest developments. “Oh, right, you weren’t there when God met Lucifer in my bedroom and they had a heart-to-heart.”

Maze threw her head back, roaring with laughter. “Good one, Decker!”

Chloe merely looked at her.

“No, seriously,” Maze chuckled.

Chloe continued to look at her.

“... Seriously?”

Chloe nodded. “I was there. It was a good talk. They’re on speaking terms again.”

“Well, fuck me.” Another suspicious glance. “You’re not kidding?”

“No. You can ask Lucifer if you don’t believe me.”

“I miss the best bits,” Maze grumbled, grabbing the vodka bottle and taking a swig.

“Yeah,” Chloe agreed. “Hey, would you like to come to our wedding? I’d like you to be a bridesmaid.”

Maze spit out her mouthful of vodka, but she was grinning, which Chloe took as a yes.

 

* * *

 

“This isn’t good,” Chloe muttered, her eyes never leaving the TV screen.

There was no response from the warm, blanket-covered lump snuggled against her side.

On the screen, reports about campsites, low-class hotels and motels, youth hostels, and even the local beaches in the greater LA area being taken over by Satanists continued. “I just want to be close to our Lord,” one of them was saying in a response to a reporter’s question. “We all do. He’s walking the earth. We need to be where he is.”

A news anchor was taking over to comment about the number of  Satanists visiting LA now having reached tens of thousands, and Chloe dragged her eyes away from the screen and down to what was visible of the Devil next to her - an unruly shock of black curls and the edge of an eyebrow. The rest was buried underneath the fluffy blanket that Lucifer had pulled over himself after announcing that he needed a power nap, whereupon he’d wrapped himself around her and promptly gone to sleep.

She nudged him. “Lucifer.”

“Hmm?” Except for his calm, even breathing that she could feel in soft hot blasts against her neck, he didn’t move a muscle.

“Your worshipers are flooding the area, my Lord,” Chloe said, hoping to rouse him without actually disturbing him. He was so adorable when he was sleepy.

His unseen mouth muttered something that sounded like ‘that’s absurd’.

Amused despite herself, Chloe gently lifted the blanket away from his face. “What’s absurd is that Satan himself is snuggling my daughter’s Hello Kitty blanket.”

He smiled, eyes still closed, completely unembarrassed.

She twisted and bent in half to touch her lips to his temple. “Lucifer. This is important.”

“Oh, I agree,” he purred, angling his head so his lips met hers. “Nothing’s more important than kissing my Father’s miracle.” His warm skin and stubble brushed her lips as he spoke. “Except having sex with her, of course.” His eyes blinked open. With his face now so close to hers, all she could see was one giant dark brown circle in the center of her vision.

Extricating her arm, she put both her hands on his face, framing it, and kissed his forehead while her thumbs gently stroked his cheeks.

He hummed his appreciation, eyes closing again in bliss.

Meanwhile, the news coverage had moved on to the next topic, and Chloe decided that petting the Devil and generally showering him with affection was more important than what the humans were up to. At least for the next twenty minutes or so.


	3. Chapter 3

It was a few days later when a series of five murders in the greater LA area reminded Choe that, annoying though they were, dealing with Satanists flocking to Lucifer wasn’t their day job.

So far, they had found no discernible motive for any of these murders. The only thing connecting them that they could see was the fact that all five victims had died during the same night and by the same method. Chloe, trying not to jump to conclusions about another demon killer on the loose, now had a ton of suspects to interview, so she was on her way to collect her partner, who for some reason wasn’t answering his phone.

Despite herself, she had a bad feeling about that. If anything, Lucifer had always been consistent about using human technology. If he didn’t answer his phone, then something was wrong, or so Chloe’s gut told her.

_He’s the Devil,_ she tried to reassure herself once again, _immortal and indestructible._ _He just not picking up. No reason to panic._

As Chloe drove her car past a church, she caught sight of the sign outside that read, “Satan is NOT welcome here”.

She shook her head, torn between annoyance and amusement. Other church signs she’d passed recently had stated things like, “The Devil is real and walks the earth - it is time to find God”, and “Hell is empty, the Devil is here”, or “Has the Lord abandoned us? Prayer and discussion group at 9”. All of which might indeed be a little worrisome if it hadn’t been offset by statements such as “Satanists and Christians - is a reconciliation possible? All Satanists welcome”, or her personal favorite so far, “If the Devil would like to join us on Saturday for a heart-to-heart, that would be swell. We’ll leave the pitchforks at home if he does, too.”

As for herself, she’d received another call inviting her to an interview, on TV this time, and several invitations to come to mess from neighboring churches whose members apparently were worried about her salvation. She didn’t really mind that; in fact, she had expected this kind of thing. After all, she was, proudly, the Devil’s Consort (and possibly the mother of the Antichrist, even though she wasn’t consciously considering it, by no means, no), and it was naive to think that all of her fellow humans would just roll with that.

(The Celestials, though, were having a ball. Once Lucifer had explained the concept of what a talk show was to his more secluded siblings (Sachiel and Ephraim hadn’t needed any explanation, and Amenadiel had been dragged kicking and screaming into human culture by his exposure to Lucifer a while ago), the one liners hadn’t stopped. Also, Lucifer himself never failed to giggle at the church signs, no matter what they said. Those who had phones took photos of the signs they spotted to send them into their newly created BroSis chat group. Chloe suspected that there was a ranking list of the best ones.)

When Chloe reached Lux, she noticed that Lucifer had once again tightened security. The reason was immediately apparent - not only was a number of black-dressed Satanists in evidence in the crowd outside, but milling among the pedestrians on the sidewalk opposite Chloe also spotted what looked like preachers of various Christian denominations. A lot of them. Looking up towards the penthouse and talking amongst themselves. Even some familiarly-robed Dominicans were scattered among them.

“This isn’t good,” she muttered, yet again. Lux was becoming a focal point for a lot of attention from opposing sides. In fact, the term ‘powder keg’ came to mind. Briefly, she wondered whether she should get LAPD involved, but for one thing,  _ she _ was LAPD, and for another, if she knew Lucifer, he wouldn’t approve of involving innocent humans that might end up in danger because of him.

Yep. She did know the Devil, and he was just like that.

_ Huh. Maybe I should accept one of those radio interview things after all, if only to tell people how wrong they are about him. _

She parked her car in her designated spot and was grabbing her purse to get out when she spotted movement in the back mirror.

Instinctively, she froze, keeping her eyes on the mirror, but whatever she’d seen didn’t show itself again. Just as she had convinced herself that it had just been her imagination, she spotted another movement, this time in another corner of the parking lot.

_ Right. _ She opened her car door, ducked out and came to a stand in front of her car, her back to the wall and her gun trained at the spot where she’d seen the movement. “LAPD!” she yelled. “Step into the light!”

“Don’t shoot me!” a male voice called from the darkness of the underground parking lot. “I’m on your side!”

_ That’s what they all say. _ She kept her gun aimed on whoever it was. “Come out and let me see you, then!”

The man did, walking forward carefully, one hand away from his body and holding something gingerly. He was young and fair-skinned. “Uh, I think you may want to have this building evacuated,” he said tentatively.

With half a dozen steps, Chloe approached him and halted a few yards away, the aim of her gun never wavering. “Show me what you’ve got there.”

It was a makeshift bomb, obviously cobbled together by someone who knew what they were doing but didn’t have the proper materials or tools.

“Put it down, step away, and put your hands against the wall,” Chloe said sharply.

“It’s not mine!” the young man wailed. Chloe could see now that he was wearing a black-and-white Dominican’s robe. “I watched as it was being concealed and thought I should warn you!”

“Yeah, right.”

“Please, you must believe me! I have nothing to do with this. But there may be more of those things around here!”

Chloe hesitated, casting a glance around the parking lot, trying against reason to find more bombs just by looking.

“I’m with the Community of the Lightbringer, Consort. We’ve met. I’m Brother Peter.”

As she peered at him with that new information, she did indeed recognize him as the blond, freckled friar that had met Lucifer and her and the gate of the Dominican friary that had caused them so much trouble a while ago.

“Something worrisome has happened that might affect the Lightbringer,” Brother Peter went on, “so we decided to come into the city to warn you. I saw this bomb being concealed while I was looking if there is a way past the bouncers from down here. Please. You must believe me.”

Chloe made a quick decision. “Alright, I’ll believe you for now. Stay here with me, though, until we’ve secured the area, and then you can explain all about that ‘worrisome’ thing to me.”

 

* * *

 

The bomb squad with their sniffer dogs had come and gone, and fortunately, the bomb the Dominican friar had watched being concealed turned out to have been the only one. Still, the incident left a sour taste in Chloe’s mouth. Whoever had planted that explosive was still out there and might try again. The description they had was too vague - male, dark hair, average height and build -, so they had nothing to go on.

She needed to warn Lucifer. Also, she had five murders to solve, and she needed her partner whom she still hadn’t managed to get hold of, which didn’t exactly reassure her. His corvette was parked in its spot, so he was probably home. Finally, hoping he was in the penthouse and merely unable to take her calls for some reason, she asked Brother Peter to wait in the club while she rode up the elevator.

She told herself once again that there could be some harmless explanation for his radio silence. He could just be where his phone wasn’t, like in the shower, or grooming his wings, or in the pool, or in one of the other rooms, or in the kitchen, or out flying. Plenty of possibilities. Hell, maybe his phone was just set to silent, or turned off, or maybe the battery was dead.

But when the elevator doors slid open, the sight that greeted her brought all her suppressed worry back with a vengeance.

Lucifer was lying on the floor next to his settee, crumpled as if he’d simply collapsed where he stood. He wasn't moving. A quick threat assessment told Chloe that there was no blood - at least not that she could see -, and that he was alone.

“Lucifer!”

No response.

She ran to him, kneeling down next to him. His glamour had failed, or maybe he'd dropped it deliberately, leaving him in his Devil form. His eyes, orange irises within black sclera, were open and tracking, and he managed to focus on her while otherwise remaining motionless except for a slight shiver.

His lips soundlessly formed her name.

“What’s wrong?” Chloe asked urgently, framing his head with her hands and feeling the unfiltered heat of his scarred skin. “What happened? Are you injured?”

He managed to form a soundless ‘no’.

She had just begun to straighten his limbs to relieve his cramped position when there was a sudden burst of music. Chloe recognized Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”. Following the sound, she spotted Lucifer’s phone lying on the side table.

Gently, she lowered his head back onto the floor and grabbed the phone.

The caller ID said “My Idiot Brother”. The phone history said 28 missed calls, about a dozen of which had been hers.

He had been lying here, on the floor, a yard away from his phone, which would have been ringing almost incessantly, unable to reach it.

She took the call.

“Finally!” Amenadiel’s voice came before she had a chance to say anything. “What in Father’s name is going on?” He sounded as worried as Chloe had ever heard him.

“Amenadiel,” she said, “it’s me, Chloe. I’m with Lucifer. There’s something wrong with him.” While she talked, she grabbed a blanket and some pillows off the settee.

“Chloe! You’re with him? Is he… is he alive?”

She put the phone on speaker to have her hands free and knelt down, arranging the pillows and blanket to make Lucifer comfortable, with his head on her lap. “He’s alive, but he can’t move or speak. Where are you?”  _ Why aren’t you here with him? _ she didn’t say out loud.

“We’re all at Sachiel’s new place. We can’t get to Lucifer. There’s something blocking us, like an invisible wall. We can’t even get around it by flight, or via the Heavenly plane. There must be some really powerful magic at work.” He paused, then went on, “None of us can feel him. We thought he was.... destroyed.”

All the while, Chloe was looking into Lucifer’s eyes, running her hand over his bare skull and down the side of his face, trying to reassure him with her touch. “No, he’s alive; not fine, but alive. We’ll get to the bottom of this,” she added, catching Lucifer’s eyes and addressing him directly. “We’ll find out what’s wrong, and we’ll fix it. I promise.”

There was a pause, then Sachiel’s voice came over the phone. “It must be some sort of containment spell, something that cuts off our awareness of Lucifer and that works on angels and fallen angels alike.” A voice said something unintelligible in the background. “Right, on  _ Archangels _ and on  _ Fallen Archangels, _ thank you, Mike. Anyway, that’s pretty powerful.”

“Put your phone on speaker, Amenadiel,” Chloe said. “That way I can hear all of you.”

A muffled discussion ensued while the Archangels tried to figure out that part of human technology.

“Lucifer,” Chloe said, leaving them to it, “are you in pain? Two blinks for yes.”

Lucifer looked at her, the glow in his orange eyes disconcertingly weak, not blinking at all, and for a moment, Chloe wondered whether he’d even understood her. But then she realized that he was just reluctant to answer her question, which told her all she needed to know.

“Where?” she asked gently. “Where does it hurt?”

He blinked once, which she took to mean ‘no’.

“Can’t say?”

A slow blink.

She felt herself grow cold. “Everywhere?”

A pause, then two slow blinks.

She unbuttoned his shirt to check his chest, but apart from the familiar burned and scarred skin of his Devil form, there were no injuries that she could see. He had said that he wasn’t injured.

The pain he felt had to be supernatural in origin.

“Guys,” she said, forcing her voice to remain steady, “it’s not just a containment spell. Whatever it is, it’s hurting Lucifer. We gotta do something.”

 

* * *

 

By comparing their various failed attempts trying to get to Lucifer, the angels had established that there seemed to be a circumference of about two miles in diameter that they could not enter, with Lux right in the middle. As it turned out, Maze, who had not left their shared apartment until Chloe called her, couldn't enter it either. But while the angels merely felt a resistance, the demon encountered a sensation of pain that kept her away very effectively. “It hate it, Decker,” Maze had growled. “Makes me feel like my skin’s being sliced open.”

Meanwhile, Lucifer's condition did not change; he remained near-paralyzed and in enough pain to make the rhythm of his breathing irregular and halting. With Maze’s colorful description, Chloe thought that she knew how he felt, and her gut clenched in sympathy with each painful inhalation. Nothing she did, from settling him in the recovery position to wrapping him in every blanket she could find, seemed to help. 

Time to find out what, if anything, the Dominican could contribute.

"You want me to enter the Lightbringer's private quarters?" Brother Peter said incredulously when Chloe went down to Lux to collect him.

"We're stumped,” Chloe said simply. "You said you have important information that can help us."

“I can tell you what I know right here,” he said, looking up at the ceiling uncomfortably. "I'd really rather not. It wouldn't be right.”

"As you like,” Chloe said. She desperately wanted to be back with Lucifer right now, but maybe this way was indeed better. Lucifer had to be unsettled enough as it was; the sight of a Dominican probably wouldn’t help.

"One of our books was stolen,” the friar explained, "an ancient and rare tome called the Key of Solomon. It contains spells and rituals that are very powerful and can have terrible consequences if they end up in the wrong hands. We reported the theft, but the police did not take our warnings seriously.”

Chloe smiled ruefully. About a year ago, she would have scoffed at those warnings as well.

“They dropped the case for lack of evidence. We never recovered the book."

_ Someone managed to summon Maze. That can’t be a coincidence. _ "Do you think that the rituals in the book could be used by whoever has it now?”

Bother Peter frowned. "If they can read ancient Hebrew and have some basic knowledge about these things, maybe.’

Chloe compressed her lips as her mind connected the dots. She had found herself irresistibly reminded of the effects of the ritual that the Dominicans had used on Lucifer a while ago; only then, the Devil had been in much greater agony, and he'd been so cold as well, none of which was the case now - fortunately. Still, the similarities were obvious.

"Brother Peter,” she said slowly, “just how big can a Devil's Trap circle be, anyway?"

 

* * *

 

"It makes sense,” Amenadiel said over the phone, confirming the Dominican’s opinion. "Theoretically, there’s no limit to the circumference of the Greater Pentacle. Once activated, it would drain Lucifer of his strength and cause him pain, but since he has in the meantime regained his wings and his grace, it can’t harm him as badly as it did last time. His new divinity is protecting him from the worst.”

Chloe felt cold fury boil in her guts. "Whoever did this wanted him trapped and helpless, so he couldn't get away while they blew up his home with him in it,” she said, forcing her voice to remain steady. "That's just… sometimes I'm ashamed of my fellow humans.”

“We don’t know for certain that there’s a human behind it,” Michael’s voice came. “This sounds demonic, both in plan and in execution.”

Beneath Chloe’s hand, Lucifer shuddered and took a halting breath; she cupped his bare skull in her hand, stroking her thumb across his temple in a soothing, repetitive movement. “Never mind who did it,” she said in the direction of the phone on the table, “how do we break the circle? Last time, there were physical lines to disrupt. Have you guys seen anything like that from above when you tried to get here?”

A pause. Chloe could hear the voices of the angels comparing notes as she gently ran her other hand over Lucifer’s chest and shoulder, stroking him, trying to keep him calm.

“No,” Michael finally said. “We haven’t seen anything resembling circles or pentagrams or Enochian symbols, not even at the places where we were repelled.”

“They could still be there,” Amenadiel cut in, “just not visible. Like, residue of holy water, or salt. Or even something as mundane as clear paint.”

“If we can’t see them, we can’t break them,” Chloe thought out loud. “But maybe we can make an educated guess where the outer line of the circle is. The friar said that it would have been activated in some way, right?”

“That’s right,” came Amenadiel’s voice. “Activation is actually the biggest part of the ritual. Only if the circle is this big, it can’t have been done the usual way - walking around the circle and chanting the spells. That’s not practicable. It must have been been done differently this time.”

There was a pause while Chloe thought and the angels on the other end of the line were silent.  _ A giant circle. A pentagram. _

_ Wait. _

_ Five points in a pentagram. And we have five seemingly unconnected murders to solve. _

“Guys,” she said, “I think I know where the points of the pentagram are. A body was found on each one last night.”

 

* * *

 

“And the last one was found... here,” Dan said, using the cursor to mark the spot on the digital map on his tablet. Then he zoomed out. “Huh. Seems you were right. The places where the bodies were found form a perfect circle and are equidistant from one another. If you connect them, you get a pentagram in a circle, with Lux right at the center.”

Chloe nodded, but her satisfaction at having solved two riddles at the same time was muted.

With Dan’s help, she had finally gotten Lucifer off his cold marble floor and into his bed, where he now lay in the recovery position, still helpless and in pain, still in his Devil form. Figuring it would be easier on him that way, she had made his wings emerge like she had seen Raphael do a while ago, by firmly stroking her hand down Lucifer’s back once.

The fluffy things now lay clear across the bed, as limp as the rest of him. She hadn’t tried folding them, afraid to somehow strain something or upset the alignment of his feathers, which would make him even more uncomfortable. Instead, she’d settled with occasionally stroking along the length of them, knowing how much this contact soothed him.

She could only imagine how he must be feeling. He was paralyzed, but not unconscious, so he would have been able to follow the conversations about the bomb, the Devil’s Trap, the Dominicans, how Lux might have been blown up with him in it, and how they needed to break the circle to end this threat and only had the foggiest idea how to go about it. His siblings and his demon were unable to get to him. All he had to guard him and to keep him company was Chloe, and now, Dan.

The Community of the Lightbringer, probably feeling responsible because none of this would be happening if they had better security, had offered to do everything in their power to help. Chloe had asked them to keep an eye on Lux. Unis were around as well, offering police protection.

It was a foregone conclusion that whoever had cast the Devil’s Trap would have another go at Lucifer while it was still active.

"Dan,” she said, forcing herself to look away from her poor Devil, "I need you to go to each of the crime scenes and see if you can find any clue about what makes up the circle, and how to disrupt it. Coordinate with the Celestials.”

"Copy that,” Dan said, looking relieved. "I'll keep you posted. And, uh, be careful.”

 

* * *

 

As the elevator doors dinged closed behind him, Dan leaned his back against the wall, grateful to be away from the penthouse, and not just because he hated seeing Lucifer suffer like that.

It wasn’t that he was begrudging his former wife her newfound happiness. It wasn’t even the fact that Lucifer was, in fact, the Devil - even though he had taken a while to come to terms with that one. No, if he was honest with himself, he was still struggling with seeing them together, now that he knew that Lucifer was  _ the _ Lucifer. And the sight of that Devil face - that was a tough one, too, of course. The wings were fine, but that face….

The worst thing, though, was seeing them together  _ while _ he was in his Devil form.

How did Chloe do it? Touching the Devil, kissing him. Possibly - even though Dan wasn’t going to go there,  _ ever _ \- having sex with him while he was looking like that. There hadn’t been the slightest trace of revulsion in her expression as she took care of him just then. If anything, she had looked as adoring as Dan had ever seen her.

Dan liked the guy, even knowing he was the Devil, but that face… those eyes….

He shook himself, forcing himself back on topic. Go collaborate with a bunch of angels to break a magic circle that was keeping the Devil trapped. Right.

What even  _ was _ his life these days?


	4. Chapter 4

Chloe had engaged the security lock on the elevator; one of the few times she had ever known it to be active. Frankly, she was astonished that such a possibility existed at all, considering Lucifer’s general indifference to his own safety. Now, though, she was grateful for it.

Then, with a start, it occurred to her that sealing the ground access to the penthouse wouldn’t solve all problems. They still didn’t know who or what was targeting Lucifer; maybe they were not human and capable of flight and might, say, come right through the windows of the penthouse. Sealing the elevator wouldn’t prevent that.

On the heels of that followed another thought. Angels couldn’t enter the circle from outside. Neither could demons. Who or what would that leave that could attack Lucifer while he was helpless in the center of the Devil’s Trap?

_ Are dragons real? _

“Should I request a helicopter?” she wondered out loud.

Meanwhile, she’d gone back to Lucifer’s bed and to holding his hand to let him know that he wasn’t alone, frustrated by her inability to do more to help him. From the twitching of his limbs and the occasional red flash in his eyes, she could tell that the pain he was in continued to batter him undiminished. He had somehow regained some small mobility, enough to return the pressure of her hand with his and to utter single words.

And of course, he kept using it to ask her whether  _ she _ was okay.

Always her. Always putting her first, no matter how bad things got for him.

_ You don’t deserve this, Lucifer. You deserve only the best things in this or any other world. _

_ If it’s not a human or a dragon or any other mythical flying creature, _ she mused, trying to distract herself so she could be of some use,  _ then whoever has cast the Devil’s Trap will have to dispel it in order to get at him. _

And Michael had said something about the whole thing having a demonic touch….

Maze must have been summoned, she realized, by whoever now had the book that was stolen from the Dominicans. The same person - or group of persons - that had cast the Devil’s Trap.  _ Well. Unless they’ve made and distributed copies. Then the cat’s well and truly out of the bag. _

Her phone rang.

She grabbed it eagerly, hoping it was Dan giving some good news for a change, but when she saw the caller ID, she stared at the display in disbelief. “Great timing, Mom,” she muttered, accepting the call.

“Pumpkin!” her mother crowed as soon as the connection was established. “Are you upstairs with your handsome Devil? Why won’t the elevator doors open?”

“We’ve got a bit of a situation, Mom,” Chloe said. Then her brain cottoned on. “Wait, are you at Lux?”

“I am indeed. One of those serious guys in the monk’s robes told me it was okay to come in. I didn’t know that medieval chic was a thing in night clubs. But, a bomb scare! How exciting!”

Chloe resisted the urge to tear at her hair.  _ Civilians. _ “Mom, I need you to get out of there now, okay? I don’t really have time for whatever it is right now.”

“Well, thank you, I’ve missed you, too,” her mother said in that passive-aggressive tone of voice she could employ so well. “But seriously, I wouldn’t be calling you if that young man hadn’t accosted me and told me to give you a message.”

Lucifer’s red eyes, looking up her soulfully out of his scarred Devil face, had been distracting Chloe, but that last sentence made her sit up and take notice. “Wait, what? What ‘young man’? You mean the one in the monk’s robes?”

There was no response except for the Lux background noise and two voices, one of which was her Mom’s, talking unintelligibly.

Then her Mom was back. “Not a monk, honey. He says he’s a Satanist, but don’t let that fool you. He’s really nice, and he says that he needs to talk to you about a book.”

 

* * *

 

**_BroSis Chat_ **

_ The First Born has added Chloe Decker to the chat _

_ Chloe Decker _ __   
Thanks   
So the perp is a demon named Capheer apparently   
Was summoned by a group of Satanists who used the key of Solomon to summon him   
And then he broke out of the circle like Maze did and is on the loose

_ The First Born _   
That’s Kafir.

_ Chloe Decker _   
?

_ The First Born _   
Not Capheer. Kafir.

_ The Covering _   
And he’s bad news, if it’s really him.

_ The First Born _   
What, Maze was summoned by humans? Why did I not know this?

_ The Sword _   
Because you don’t need to know everything, First Born

_ Chloe Decker _   
Guys can we focus please   
Why is this guy bad news, Maze is a demon too and shes loyal to Lucifer

_ The Covering _   
Apparently, Luci had to stomp on him a few times for coveting the throne of Hell   
  
_ The First Born _   
Yeah, I remember hearing him whine about it repeatedly.

_ Death _   
He’s also like one of the more powerful Hellions   
Kafir that is   
Luci too obvie

_ Chloe Decker _   
So you think he may be out for revenge

_ The Healer _ _   
_ Here’s a thought

_ Death _   
?

_ The Covering _   
Raphael?

_ The Healer _   
If Kafir was inside the circle when it was activated, then we can’t get at him, but he can get at Lucifer.

_ Chloe Decker _   
…. I hadn’t considered that

_ The Healer _   
Stupid way to talk, this. Typing takes such a long time.

_ Chloe Decker _   
Any ideas who I can call in as backup   
Humans are out obviously   
And so are celestials   
Have you guys made any progress with the circle

_ The Covering _   
Calm down, Chloe, we don’t really know that Kafir is inside the circle

_ The Sword _   
Yes, that would imply careful planning, which isn’t exactly a demon’s strong suit

_ The First Born _   
Besides, Kafir would be as affected by the circle as Luci is.   
Worse, since he doesn’t have any Divinity protecting him.

_ The Sword _   
Exactly.   
It’s much more likely that he broke the circle he was summoned into, then he proceeded to trap Lucifer on a whim because the book that gave him the idea was right there.   
Then he hired humans to do the dirty work for him, like planting that bomb.

_ The Healer _   
That’s not how demons operate, either, Mike. Kafir would go up close and personal with Luci if he could. Like, escape the circle and go straight for the King’s jugular.

_ Death _   
The King’s Jugular - sounds like a band

_ Chloe Decker _   
Guys please I’m really worried here   
We’ll be in the clear as soon as you break the circle, so please

_ Death _ _   
_ Sorry

_ The Healer _   
How is Lucifer?

_ Chloe Decker _   
No change   
And I hate it   
So do something

_ The First Born _   
Well, we got nothing.   
I’m expanding our horizons.

_ The First Born has added Mazikeen Smith to the chat _

_ The Sword _   
What, we’re chatting with demons now?

_ The First Born _   
Save it, Mike.   
Maze, we need your help breaking a containment circle.

_ Mazikeen Smith _   
Way ahead of you   
Been sniffing around it for a bit

_ Chloe Decker _   
A demon named Kafir is behind it apparently

_ The Sword _   
I still don’t see how another demon can help if we don’t know what to do.

_ Mazikeen Smith _   
Well since your bird brains seem to be out of ideas its actually a good thing im here to help out

_ Chloe Decker _   
You got something Maze   
?

_ Mazikeen Smith _   
Think so   
Surprised you didnt notice the stench

_ The First Born _   
Less cryptic and more constructive, please

_ Mazikeen Smith _   
Its clearly something of heaven   
No wonder you lot dont smell it

_ The Sword _   
How would Kafir have access to something of Heaven?

_ Mazikeen Smith _   
Does it matter   
I know what i smell and the stench is ugh   
Maybe pour bleach over it to disrupt it or something

_ The Healer _   
If the circle is made from something divine, it stands to reason that something infernal will disrupt it

_ Death _   
What like have Maze spit on it

_ The Sword _   
Or bleed?

_ Mazikeen Smith _   
I can feel the love, bird boy   
For Lucifer I would gladly bleed on it just so you know   
I can try pissing on it   
Or puking lol

_ The Covering _   
We haven’t heard from Chloe in a while   
Are you okay Chloe?

_ The First Born _   
Chloe?

 

* * *

 

She watched the Devil’s red-scarred hands claw weakly at the bedding, could hear his ragged breathing, and she fought down another wave of despair mixed with anger. Such a cowardly way to harm someone - let magic do its work and come in when the victim was weakened.

It almost physically hurt seeing him like this, yet she wouldn’t move away. She could tell from the way his eyes kept seeking hers out that he still needed to know she was there with him. Who knew for how long this would go on? If they didn’t find a way to break the circle soon, lack of water and food would become a problem at some point, not to mention the effect the magic was having on him that she couldn’t see.

Next to her on the table, her phone pinged an incoming chat message. Looking up from Lucifer, she reached out to grab it, hope soaring. Maybe Maze or Dan had something.

A window in the living area shattered.

Instead of her phone, Chloe grabbed the blade on the table next to it and rolled off the bed to hide behind the mattress and the mound of blankets and Lucifer on it, then crawled towards the walk-in closet, taking care to keep out of sight.

She could hear heavy footsteps approaching and ascending the stairs to the bedroom, where Lucifer lay helpless in his bed, swathed in blankets, now apparently alone.

Reaching the inside of the closet, she rolled to a stand, blade held ready in her hand.

“So,” a deep, raspy voice said, “here you are. Looking sexy as ever.”

There was a pause.

“Kafir,” Lucifer rasped. “Long time no maim.”

Kafir! So, the demon  _ had _ to have been inside the circle when it was created. Why wasn’t he affected by the magic? What had they missed?

Chloe carefully shifted her weight, leaning forward so she could see the reflection of the bedroom in the closet mirror. She couldn’t see Kafir; he had to be in a blind angle, but Lucifer on his bed was clearly visible to her. Still helpless, still mostly paralyzed from the effect of the Devil’s Trap.

Holding her breath, she tiptoed towards the other entrance of the closet, through it, and into the living area, then slowly made her way towards the bedroom.

“I have long thought about how I would end you,  _ my Lord.” _ The demon’s intonation conveyed his disgust. “Slaughtering you in your bed seems apt enough.”

By then, Chloe had reached the stairs, which allowed her to see the broad back of the hulking, black-winged, leather-clad figure of Kafir. The demon was holding an ugly-looking tripod-like thing in one hand. There seemed to be a weak spot in his armor just above his hips….

Kafir took another step and raised his weapon. “Any last words?”

“I’ll see you in Hell.” Lucifer’s voice was weak, his diction slurred, but the longstanding hatred between the two of them still got across loud and clear.

“You wish.” The demon drew his arm holding the tripod back, ready to strike. Chloe sprang forward, ducked under the leathery wings, and rammed her demon blade into his back where his armor was weakest.

The hellish metal blade sliced through the black leather cleanly to become lodged in the demon’s body with a wet sound, just as the tripod Kafir was wielding came down upon the Devil.

“No!” Chloe yelled.

At the same time, Kafir howled like a, well, a struck demon, and turned. Barely managing to pull the demon blade back out in time, Chloe stumbled back, trying to stay out of range of the polearm, hoping that the wound she had dealt him would at least slow him down, hoping that Lucifer was okay, that Kafir had missed anything vital, or that Someone had intervened.

The visage that faced her was a vision just like she had always imagined the denizens of Hell to look like when they weren’t glamoured, but she, inured to the sight of the Devil’s face, was unimpressed. Unimpressed by the face, that is. Very, very impressed by the hulking physique that literally dwarfed her, by the claws on his wings, and by the huge, dully glinting multi-pointed weapon.

“You!” Kafir roared. “You dare!” He raised his tripod once more, seeming less vigorously than before, but Chloe still knew that, even weakened, she didn’t stand a chance against him. The demon advanced a step, spreading his wings to his sides threateningly, towering over Chloe, who raised her demon blade ineffectually but defiantly. She’d fight for her Devil as long as she had the strength for it.

“No!” Lucifer’s voice came from behind Kafir.

One minute, she was staring at Death in the shape of a hellborn demon; the next, there was a swish of something white and Kafir’s head tumbled from his body, accompanied by a spray of blood that went everywhere.

Instinctively, Chloe squeezed her eyes shut, ducking her head away as hot demon blood spattered her face and hands. When she opened them again, Kafir, now headless, was toppling like a puppet with its strings cut, revealing Lucifer behind him, half-sprawled on the bed, one wing stretched forward and weakly dropping onto the bed, the full length of its primaries stained red.

He’d decapitated the demon with his wing. For a second, he’d overcome the magical paralysis. What he’d been unable to do for himself, he’d managed to do for her.

“Lucifer,” she whispered, touched and awe-struck at the same time, stepping over the slain demon to crawl onto the bed with him.

He made a wretched sound, trying to speak, but the magic had regained its hold over him. “You okay?” he managed to force out.

“I’m fine,” she said, and the relief in his eyes was nearly enough to make her cry. “Did he injure you?”

“Doesn’t matter.” The words were barely intelligible but oh so typical.

“Where?” she asked gently.

His shoulder twitched in response. Removing the blanket, she could see a single mark high on his upper arm, slightly redder than his red Devil skin, bleeding sluggishly.

Carefully, she moved his arm, but the bone was whole. The thick comforter must have shielded him from the worst of it.

She smiled in relief. “Just a flesh wound. It’ll be fine.” She bent down to kiss his red-scarred face. “Thank you for saving my life.”

He made a half scoff, half sob, and weakly raised his wing off the bed in invitation. “My brave, beautiful miracle.”

Eagerly, she crawled underneath his wing to wrap her arms around him and pull his face down towards her neck, shaking with reaction, needing to feel him, to smell him, the wing coming down warm and soft on top of them, his breath hot against her skin.

There was blood everywhere. They would need to remove the dead demon, clean up, possibly redecorate, but that was a problem for another day. For now, they had each other.

 

* * *

 

They still lay wrapped up on one another like that when the cavalry arrived.

Lucifer had fallen asleep minutes ago, and Chloe, entirely unwilling to move away, had simply continued to lie with him, literally under the Devil’s wing, now and then brushing a fingertip over the burned skin on his temple or gently kissing him as he slept. She couldn’t get over how each small touch made him hum softly, as if these barely-there caresses touched something deeper than his skin.

Then, there was the familiar sound of angels landing, and Chloe blinked her eyes open to find the view to the doorway blocked by five winged figures.

“Eww,” Raphael said, looking at the blood spattered everywhere.

Michael kicked at the demon corpse with an expression of disgust. “Nice going, Luci.”

“Are you okay, Brother?” Amenadiel added, not even dignifying the dead Kafir with a look.

Lucifer, back to his human form, reluctantly raised his wing off himself and Chloe to sit up, groaning. “Well, look who decided to be useful after all. Took your bloody time, didn’t you.”

Azrael ducked underneath her brothers’ wings to settle down on the bed, her own wings folded neatly on her back. “The stupid circle was keeping me from harvesting the souls within, so I needed it gone. Nothing to do with you, Lu.”

“Of course not,” Lucifer studiously agreed. He regarded his bloodied wing resignedly and made a production of settling it with the other one on his back.

“I hate abuse of magical power on principle,” Michael supplied, while Amenadiel nodded in agreement.

Sachiel, who had been regarding the hellish torture device in the corner of Lucifer’s bedroom with an expression of mixed awe and disapproval, turned to add, “Ephraim was trapped in the circle as well. I was doing it for my son.”

Lucifer nodded. “Uh huh. What was he doing in Hollywood, anyway?”

Sachiel shrugged. “He’s decided to go to school again. Private class.”

“I see.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. These idiots were her future husband and in-laws. Time to teach the lot of them basic human manners.

She extricated herself from the blankets and stood. “Thank you for your help,” she said pointedly, smiling and pulling the surprised Michael down for a hug.

Letting go, she turned to Amenadiel. “And thank you.” He, at least, returned her smile, and her hug.

Sachiel watched her approach with a twinkle in his eyes and readily opened his arms. “You’re very welcome, Chloe,” he said, before she could say anything.

Raphael, who had watched the scene with an unreadable expression, suffered the hug with dignity. “We’re glad to be of service,” she said. “You don’t owe us anything.”

“Besides,” Amenadiel added, “the credit goes to Maze. She broke the circle.”

“Oh?” Chloe looked around. “Where is she?”

“On her way, I suppose,” Sachiel said.

Michael shrugged. “Who knows, with demons.”

“If she’s the one who solved this, maybe you should pay her a little respect, Brother,” Lucifer groused. “How did she solve this, anyway?”

“Hey!” Azrael put in, holding out her arms to Chloe.

Smiling, Chloe hugged the Angel of Death who, in a way, had started all of this way back then with her crossbow. “Thank you. For everything.” She hoped that her meaning was coming across, as she was thanking Azrael for more than just her help with the current situation.

“I was just following orders,” Azrael muttered, showing that she had indeed understood. “But you’re welcome anyway.”

“No idea what Maze did,” Amenadiel was replying to Lucifer’s question. “She just did something, and all of a sudden, we could cross the circumference of the circle, so we came straight here. You’ll have to ask her.”

“But first,” Raphael put in, “sit back down, Brother. That looks nasty.”

That made Chloe take notice. “I thought it was just a flesh wound.”

“It is,” Lucifer said. “Stop fussing, Raphe.”

He did sit back down, though, and let his sister poke and prod at the injury to finally proclaim that he’d been lucky to just receive a severe contusion.

“Well,” Lucifer said with a soft glance at Chloe, “someone very close to my heart rather forcefully distracted Kafir at a crucial moment. Luck has nothing to do with it.”

She gave him a smile, unobtrusively wiping at the dried demon blood on her hand that had wielded the blade.

There was a pause as the angels put two and two together.

“So,” Amenadiel said, visibly ignoring all of this, “this is how Kafir was able to move within the circle.” He held up what looked like a large pendant on a leather string. “It’s a talisman imbued with some sort of power. You can feel it.”

Sachiel shook his head. “Getting something of Heaven to make the circle, getting an empowered amulet to be protected from its effect - sounds like an awful lot of premeditation. We are talking about a demon here.”

“Sach,” Lucifer said, audibly annoyed, “when will you learn that demons aren’t wild animals? If they were, I’d’ve had a much easier time ruling over them. They’re at least as crafty as you are; more, I daresay.”

“Point taken.” Sachiel nodded at Lucifer. “Anyway, this is where I leave you. I need to find my son and see if he’s okay.”

“Fine, fine. Tell him to practice his arpeggios, or even I won’t be able to teach him anything. Oh, and can you, at least, you know…?” He trailed off, nodding at the dead demon.

“Fine,” Sachiel said. “I’ll drop him off at a gate of Hell as a warning.”

“Thank you.”

“Aaand maybe you should keep that,” Amenadiel added, holding the amulet out to Lucifer. “You know, just in case.”

Lucifer sighed. “It’ll ruin the lines of my dress shirts,” he muttered, but, to Chloe’s relief, he accepted the amulet.

One by one, the angels took their leave, commenting how if there was nothing to eat there was no reason to stay, but Chloe saw their expressions as they looked at her - respectful and approving. So far, she’d been little more than their Father’s miracle that their brother was infatuated with, but that was beginning to change.

“Well, my demon slayer,” Lucifer said when the last of his siblings had flown off, “I vote we take a nice long bath and maybe celebrate the fact that we’re both still alive. Uh, in a carnal way, of course.” He actually batted his eyelids at her as he said that last bit.

She couldn’t help her smile. Oh, how she loved him. “How about we do all that in one of the guest suites? The decor in here is a bit too slaughterhouse for me right now.”

He looked around and pulled a face. “You’re right. I’ll call in my decorator. It’s high time for new bedclothes, anyway.” His expression brightened. “And meanwhile, carnal relations? Deal?”

She felt her smile widen. He was incorrigible, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. “Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, finally finished. Thanks for bearing with me, and thanks for reading! I hope you liked it.


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